3M plant manager says Montgomery had toxic waste data

Version conflicts with township officials’ account

By: Katie Wagner
   MONTGOMERY — The manager of 3M’s Belle Mead quarry defended his handling of information about potentially toxic metals stored on the company’s Sourland Mountain site, stating on Wednesday that he had regularly provided township officials with the federal Environmental Protection Agency’s Toxic Release Inventory for the plant, which contained the data.
   The EPA’s Toxic Release Inventory contains the amount, in pounds, of potentially toxic waste released by an industrial plant and the amount of waste removed from a plant’s site.
   "We feel we have been open and honest with our operation and comply with the law," said Keith Jacobs, manager of the 3M plant, which the company recently announced would close. "We have met with the technical advisory committee regularly and share data with the township regularly," he said. Mr. Jacobs said he has been at the 3M plant the past 3½ years. "The only issue we have at the present time is with our stormwater runoff," he added.
   Township officials, however, said they only recently learned that 3M released potentially toxic waste material on site and had never seen the EPA’s Toxic Release Inventory for 3M.
   This month, the township expressed its concern for the hundreds of thousands of pounds of potentially toxic metals produced at the plant and not transferred to an off-site treatment facility or landfill in a letter to the state Department of Environmental Protection and 3M.
   Steven Sacks-Wilner, chairman of the Montgomery Township Planning Board, said the township wants to know what’s going to happen with 3M’s stockpile of crushed rock — or fines pile — when the plant closes and what the plant is currently doing with them.
   Neither 3M or the DEP have responded to the letter, but Mr. Sacks-Wilner said he is expecting a response from the DEP within the next week.
   Mr. Jacobs did not specify when he would be discussing the details addressed in the letter with township officials, but said he didn’t think the plant’s waste materials were posing health risks to township residents.
   One of the potentially toxic metals deposited on the 3M site is lead, which comes mainly from rocks broken down to produce roof granules made at the plant. These rocks contain .77 parts of lead per million, Mr. Jacobs said.
   "It (lead) really just happens to be an item on the list. It doesn’t mean it’s toxic," he added.
   EPA Spokesman Rich Cahill made a similar statement.
   "The fact that it’s reported through TRI data does not necessarily mean there’s a problem or that it’s causing health risks," Mr. Cahill said.
   DEP spokesperson Larry Hajna, said the DEP is currently drafting a response to the township’s letter.
   He declined to provide a specific timeframe of when the township should expect to receive the response.
   The DEP has been in contact with 3M regarding whether or not the way stormwater discharge is dealt with violates the company’s National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System permit and the township’s letter prompted further communication with 3M on this issue, Mr. Hajna said.
   "We’re trying to get a better handle on how they arrive at the numbers they report to the EPA in the TRI," Mr. Hajna added.
   Mr. Jacobs said 3M representatives will be meeting with the township Planning Board on Sept. 24 to provide an update on where the plant is with the second phase of its stormwater management project, which involves modifying one basin to treat stormwater from another basin.
   The initial phase of 3M’s stormwater treatment plan has already been implemented, he added. This part of the project utilizes four basins connected to each other to provide the stormwater retention time to settle out solids.
   Records of the amount of potentially toxic materials released at the site are available up to 1987, since the EPA only started requesting industrial plants provide toxic release inventory’s in the late 1980s, Mr. Cahill said.
   3M has been in operation since the 1950s. Between 1987 and 2005, the plant deposited nearly 215,000 pounds of potentially toxic waste materials on the site, according to documents from the EPA’s Toxic Release Inventory.